Brothers in Arms
by nereemac
Summary: Post "I'll Be Seeing You." Six weeks apart can change a lot. UPDATE 30/08/12: Since people are still reading this - thanks, btw! - I wanted to let you know it hasn't been forgotten, and it will be finished. Just maybe not very soon. I know where it needs to go, I just lack the motivation at the moment to get it there. The show sucked it all out of me. Sorry.
1. Chapter 1

Jo walked, she didn't run. She walked from the Sheriff's office. Okay, she walked fast, but that was still walking. She was in control, and everything was fine. So what if she could still smell Zane, still taste Zane, still feel Zane's tongue... Oh, God. She slid into the driver's seat of her car and rested her head on the wheel, momentarily wishing she could give in to the desire to curl into a ball a sob. Then her phone rang and she jumped, hitting her knee off the console and cursing herself for the lapse into weakness and self-pity. She reached for the phone while taking a quick look to check no one had seen it. The slumping or the jumping. It looked as though she'd gotten away with it, so she turned her attention to the phone, and a smile instantly spread across her face.

"Dad! You have no idea how happy I am you called. How are you?"

"I'm fine, honey. It's good to hear your voice too, but I have some bad news. It's about Nick."

* * *

><p>Zane knocked on the office door. This wasn't something he'd usually do, but given how well ambushing her <em>hadn't<em> gone lately, he thought maybe a new tactic was called for.

He wasn't expecting the distinctly masculine "Enter," that answered his knock.

Opening the door, he saw Ericson, Jo's second-in-command, at the desk, which answered the who, but not the why.

"Oh, um, hi. I was looking for Lupo."

"_Ms._ Lupo isn't here today. Is there something I can help you with, Dr. Donovan?" asked Ericson, somehow managing to imply that helping Zane was around the level of root-canal surgery on the list of things he'd like to experience.

"No, that's okay. I'll come back later."

"Much later," replied Ericson, with what looked like a smirk.

"Excuse me?" asked Zane, not bothering to hide his growing annoyance. Then he thought better of it, remembering that Ericson was even fonder of tasing him than Jo was, and that pissing him off on a day when he was in charge was probably not the smartest move. "I'm sorry, what did you mean?" he asked, in a more reasonable tone.

"Ms. Lupo will be away for some time. I will be in charge of security in the meantime. I prefer not to receive non-work-related visits from scientists, so I'm sure I won't be seeing much of you, will I, Dr. Donovan?"

* * *

><p>"Hey there, sleepyhead," Jo smiled. "How are you feeling?"<p>

"Groggy," Nick replied, croakily. "What are you doing here, sis? And where is here, anyway?"

"Here is an Army medical facility in Germany. And I'm here because my littlest brother got himself blown up." She stood up and started plumping his pillows, tucking his blankets in, pouring him some ice chips. Anything to keep her hands busy and stop her bursting into tears with relief.

"Jose, sit still a minute," Nick tried to grab for her hands to still them, and winced.

"Yeah, you're going to want to lay off the sudden movements for a while. The Doctors'll be in soon to tell you all about it, but I need to ask you something first."

"Of course. Anything."

"How high is your security clearance?"

* * *

><p>Another day, another door. Zane braced himself before knocking. He'd planned this out meticulously; he knew exactly what he was going to say. He didn't know what would come next, of course, not exactly - but he'd narrowed Jo's likely response down to five possibilities and planned a different strategy for each. He'd started out with sixteen, but in the six weeks he'd waited for her to show up again, he'd managed to rule out eleven of them as being too unlikely to be worth planning for. It was a shame; one of them involved her throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him. He'd been sorry to let that one go. He felt himself smiling at the thought as he knocked on the door.<p>

When the door eventually opened, he felt the smile slide off his face as he realised he'd never planned for anyone but Jo to answer her door. Even if he had, he would never have pictured the man he saw in front of him – a full-leg cast on his right leg, a walking cast on his left, strapping visible at the neckline of his t-shirt, no hair on the right side of his head, two faded black eyes, and what looked like a slightly melted ear.

His mind went blank. All those carefully rehearsed words disappeared, and nothing else was taking their place. Zane stared at the man in front of him for far longer than could ever be considered polite and tried to think of something to say.

The man chuckled. "Yeah, I knew I shouldn't have answered the door. She warned me not to scare the locals."

"I … sorry, I didn't mean to stare. I just … you're not who I expected to see. I was looking for Jo Lupo."

"Well, yeah. I guessed that much. She went to her office a couple of hours ago, you could catch her there."

"Uh, no. That's ok. It's not a work..." Zane scrambled for some explicable (to anyone but him and Jo) reason why _he_ would be visiting her house. "I just wanted to welcome her home."

"Oh, you're a friend of hers? Well, she should be back soon, just come in and wait." He hopped back from the door and waved Zane inside.

Zane's mind was whirling. He was pretty sure Jo wouldn't like him waiting for her in her house. He was pretty sure she'd take this as another attempt to ambush her. He'd already opened his mouth to refuse when he was cut off.

"Seriously man, I can't stand up for much longer. I need to sit down _now_, and I'm bored out of my mind here by myself. Come in and we can trade Jose stories."

"Jose?" Zane asked as he followed the man into the living room.

"Aw crap," he chuckled again. "She's going to get me for that. It's a family nickname – when she was really little we all called her Josie, but when she got bigger she decided it was too much of a girl's name. She wanted us to call her Jo, but we never got the hang of it, so she got stuck with Jose."

Finally Zane felt like his brain was working again. "So you're her brother," he said, more a statement than a question.

"One of them. I'm Nick. I'd shake hands, but I'd fall over. And you are?"

"Zane." He watched as Nick carefully lowered himself from his crutches onto the couch, "do you need a hand?" he asked.

"No. Thank you. I found out pretty quickly that that only makes it hurt more. Like that thing over there," he gestured with his chin at a stressless recliner across to roon. "Jose thought it would be perfect for me, but it turns out that all those tiny movements you hardly know you're making, that are supposed to make those things so comfortable – they hurt like hell when half your body's in casts and the other half's bruised or burnt."

"What happened to you?" Zane blushed, appalled at himself. "I'm sorry, that's rude. It's none of my business."

"It's fine. Looking like this, I can't expect people _not_ to wonder what happened. It was an I.E.D. I was in bad shape, but it could have been worse, and I'm getting better every day. Take a seat – you can have the torture chair."

"You _were_ in bad shape?" Zane asked, sitting in the much-maligned chair. "No offence man, but you look like you're still in bad shape."

"Ha! You should have seen me six weeks ago. Actually," Nick looked thoughtful, "you probably shouldn't. I saw your face when I opened the door – you'd probably have hurled six weeks ago."

Zane grinned. He had a feeling he was going to like Nick.

* * *

><p>"Nick! You awake?" Jo called, as she tossed her keys into the bowl by the door. "I thought, if you feel up to it, we could go out to eat tonight. There's a café in town where the chef makes the most amazing gnocchi..." her voice trailed off as she rounded the corner into her open-plan living room. "Zane, what are you doing here?"<p>

"He's been keeping your sadly neglected brother company," Nick said. "What happened to 'I'll be gone half an hour, tops'? You've been gone for two hours."

"Sorry," she said, absently, "there was a minor problem while I was checking in with Ericson. He got called in to see the Director, and when Fargo found out I was back..."

"He wanted to see you. Understandable," Zane finished for her. They locked eyes.

Jo was glad that Nick was sitting with his back to her, so he couldn't see the look on her face. She was pretty sure it had been in the neighborhood of "stricken" since she'd seen Zane, and as the force of Zane's comment struck her, she could feel herself blushing.

She walked to the back of the couch, and dropped a quick kiss on Nick's left temple, one of the few unharmed and accessible parts of his body. "So, what do you think? Does gnocchi sound good?"

"Gnocchi does sound good, but honestly Jose, I think I'm too tired to go out. Do they deliver?"

"They don't," Zane replied as he pulled himself out of the chair. "But if Jo phones in the order, I can go pick it up and drop it off here on my way home."

"You could join us," Nick invited.

Zane shook his head, "Hey, if you're too tired to go out, you're too tired for company. I'll come by tomorrow, if you want. How are you at Yahtzee?"

"I guess you'll find out tomorrow. Thanks Zane, I'm glad you came by."

"Me too," smiled Zane, looking from brother to sister and walking to the door.

"Why did you come by?" Jo asked as she showed him out.

Zane shrugged. "I heard you were back, and I..."

"Wanted to see me. Understandable," she nodded, echoing his earlier words. It seemed important somehow, to do that – to let him know that she'd understood he wasn't just talking about Fargo. She stepped outside, and pulled the door to behind her. "Zane, I … can't do this right now. I know we need to talk, but I can't. Not right now."

He reached out, as if to touch her arm, and then seemed to think better of it. "I know. I understand. I didn't before. When I came here, I thought you'd taken off because of me, because of us, and I thought you'd come back because you'd thought about things and you were ready to talk to me. I didn't know about Nick. I can't imagine what the last six weeks have been like for you, but I can believe you haven't had time to think about me. So, I'm going to go get your food, bring it here, and then I'm going to go do some work so I can keep your brother company tomorrow while you're at GD."

"Thank you, Zane." she smiled as brightly as she could, but had a feeling she wasn't fooling him.

"You're welcome," he paused, "Jose." He grinned as he climbed onto his bike, and she knew he hadn't misinterpreted her expression this time – he knew exactly how much she hated that.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note<strong>

This story's a first for me in many ways. It's my first Eureka fic (or, at least, the first I've posted), it's the first thing I've ever posted without having it 100% finished, and it's the first multi-chapter fic I've written in … more years than I feel like admitting. It's also the first thing I've written in years that isn't a character study, and has an actual plot. Yes, that's right – it may not seem like it now, but this story is going somewhere. Or, I'm hoping it will now – I need the motivation of having part of it out there to make me finish writing it. Most of all, I need to get it out there now, because I cannot write AU, and I don't want to be stuck in the middle of this when the show comes back and proves me wrong.

Thank you for reading this far. Reviews make me happy, and they're good for your soul - I'm just sayin'.


	2. Chapter 2

Jo took a last look around her living room, checking that everything Nick might need was in easy reach. She looked at his bedroom door and sighed. She wasn't sure about leaving him, even for the morning, but Fargo's thinly-veiled desperation yesterday had made it clear that he needed her back at her post. He'd been understanding about her need to take leave, and he'd been more than accommodating about the amount of leave, but it was time to get back to work.

Duty called.

Nick would be fine.

If she told herself that enough times, maybe she'd start to believe it.

Rolling her eyes at herself, she grabbed her keys and opened the front door.

"Vincepresso?" asked Zane, who was standing on her doorstep. Standing on her doorstep, holding out a cup of coffee, at eight in the morning. And smiling at her. God, she'd missed that smile. Her stomach seemed to have dropped to about the level of her knees, and she chided herself, not for the first time, for not preparing herself for seeing him.

"Thanks," she managed a small, tight smile back, and gestured for him to follow her into the house. "What are you doing here, Zane?" she asked, as she led him into the kitchen.

"I told you I was coming by." He sounded puzzled, "I promised Nick I'd kick his ass at Yahtzee. See?" He held up a box of, yes, Yahtzee.

She sighed. She hadn't really believed he would come, and he wasn't going to make this easy. "Yes, I know that, but why? Why are _you_ here? Why are you _here_? Why would you want to spend your day playing a kids' game with my convalescent brother? We're not friends. You barely know me, and you don't know him at all."

"Don't do that, Jo!" he interrupted, all trace of that smile gone now, replaced by a somewhat forbidding scowl. "You're not ready to talk about it, that's fine, but do not pretend to me that we don't both know this," he paused and waved his hand vaguely between them, "is more complicated than that."

She stared at him, trying, if she were honest, to stare him down. His scowl didn't slip. She laughed a little then. It sounded choked even to her. "You're right. You always did hate it when I was passive-aggressive."

His brows lowered even further at that, but then he seemed to decide to let it slide, and turned to look out the window. She sagged slightly with relief. She really hadn't meant to say that, any of it. Dammit, why couldn't she just keep her mouth shut? She took a too-big gulp of coffee, scalded her tongue, and was almost glad.

"This is a really nice house," he was still looking out the window, like he was giving her time to pull herself together, or like he didn't want to look at her. She wasn't sure which would be worse.

"Yeah. I'd give you a guided tour, but I really do need to get to work." She forced herself into her habitual efficiency, "Nick's awake, but it takes the painkillers a while to kick in. The nurse will be here at 9:30 to get him showered and dressed, and change his dressings. Nick has a really low boredom threshold, though, so it's good you're here."

Zane looked round at that, his eyes instantly locking with hers, but their expression was unreadable. God, she hated that. She hated not knowing what he was thinking, but she'd never had that knack. Carter had it, the ability to read people – it was what made him such a good sheriff. Zane had it too. And that just made it worse – what was he seeing in her face right now?

She looked away, and started for the door. "He can't have any more painkillers for another six hours, and I'll be back by then. If he's in a lot of discomfort before then, he can have some ibuprofen, but make sure he eats something first. He won't ask for them, but he'll take them if you put them in front of him. You'll know if he needs them – he'll get quiet. Nick's never quiet, and he gets this look on his face."

"Jo?" She turned. "Have a good day," he said. He smiled a little, and she thought he looked a little sad, but hey, what did she know?

* * *

><p>Zane pulled out his laptop, intending to do some work while he waited for Nick to surface. Two minutes of staring at his desktop later, he realized that wasn't going to happen. Jo's question had thrown him – he'd spent so long racing to catch up in this … whatever the hell this was, that he hadn't expected to have to spin his wheels and wait for her.<p>

Of course he was here. Where else would he be?

They were connected, he knew that. He'd known that since he'd kissed her – more specifically since she'd kissed him back. The Jo Lupo he'd thought he'd known for 2 years would've knocked him on his ass. Instead she'd kissed him back like it came naturally. She'd stroked his face, and pulled away, and looked at him like he'd punched her in the gut.

He'd been pissed, impatient, and frustrated – a night and a day in a jail cell would do that, but he winced at the memory of the tone he'd used.

"Then why didn't that feel like a first kiss?"

Because it wasn't.

Her face would have told him that, even if every cell in his body hadn't already been screaming it.

It made no sense, of course, but at the same time it was the only thing that did make sense. Then Zoe came in, Jo ran out, and he hadn't seen her again for six weeks. Six long weeks of wondering if Jo was ever going to come back, trying to keep out of Ericson's way, and trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

He liked puzzles, always had, and this was like a jigsaw. When he'd kissed her, he'd gotten a glimpse of the picture, but then Jo had run away and taken half the pieces with her. And there were few things more frustrating than a jigsaw with no picture and pieces missing. He'd filled in a lot of the spaces while she'd been gone, but he'd been ready to ask, plead, cajole, demand, or threaten to get answers from Jo, and then Nick had answered the door, and the jigsaw, this all-consuming puzzle, suddenly didn't seem that important any more. Jo had had other things to think about, and when she saw him she had that look again. That look like he'd punched her in the gut, and like she was scared – scared of him and scared of what he was going to say. In that moment, he'd realized that whatever else he did, he wanted to keep that look off her face.

He wasn't sure when that had happened – when he'd gone from wanting to understand their past, to wanting to have a present. It had happened though, but it looked like Jo was going to take some convincing.

* * *

><p>Jo sat at her desk, trying to remember what it was she was supposed to be doing. Intellectually, she knew that always happened when you came back from leave – there was a period of re-adjustment as your brain settled back into its old routines. Yeah, who was she kidding? Her brain wasn't settling into anything. It was back at her house with Nick. With Zane.<p>

Maybe it would help. Maybe Zane would help. She'd been worried about leaving Nick alone, now he wasn't. She'd always been sure they'd get along, there'd just never been a chance to introduce them before. By the time she and Zane had been serious enough to think about meeting each other's families, Nick and the rest of hers had been stationed overseas, and the one time since then that Nick had been Stateside on leave, Zane had been in the Arctic.

Except this Zane hadn't been in the Arctic. She hadn't been serious with this Zane. She'd never talked to her brothers about this Zane. And yet, there he'd been on her doorstep this morning, leap-frogging over all the getting-to-know-you crap and jumping straight into her life like he thought she wouldn't notice. Like he thought the whole town wouldn't notice. She couldn't afford for the town to notice, none of them could – any behavior too out of the ordinary would draw attention, and attention could only increase the chances of letting something slip.

Zane must have figured out the whole story by now. He was a smart guy, and he'd had six weeks, but he hadn't said anything. She wanted to trust him, God, how she wanted to trust him, but it wasn't just her life on the line. She had to think about the others, and she had to think about Nick. However welcome the sight of Zane had been this morning, however reassuring it was to have someone with Nick today, letting him in had been a risk, and one she knew she hadn't calculated.

Realizing she'd read the same sentence in Ericson's report at least five times, and still didn't know what it said, Jo gave up. She'd do the rounds of the labs, checking in with people, checking out their experiments, kick-starting her brain. If there were anything vital in the report, Ericson would have told her. It could wait.

* * *

><p>Author's Note<p>

Firstly, because I forgot to say it last time. I don't own Eureka, but you all know that.

Secondly, thank you, thank you, thank you to all the people who've posted to say they like the story so far. You're all lovely.

Thirdly, I'm so sorry this update's taken so long. I had a horrible attack of real life that included (but wasn't limited to) being laid up for a couple of weeks with a slipped disc. Then Zane wouldn't shut up, Jo wouldn't say anything, and the weeks I had before season 4.5 vanished into the ether. Seriously though, Zane is mad at me because he thinks it's time I got to the fun bit of the story – he keeps calling me the exposition fairy – but after I re-read the first chapter, I realized that although Zane and I knew exactly what he was doing and why he was doing it, Jo didn't have a clue.

Next update: guaranteed to arrive sooner than this one did, and to have some actual, y'know, plot and stuff.


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